IMF chief sees little improvement in global growth for 2013

Global growth is likely to remain tepid this year and central banks should keep their easy monetary policy in place, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

"Thanks to the actions of policymakers, the economic world no longer looks quite as dangerous as it did six months ago," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told the Economic Club of New York.

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But the IMF chief said while there were signs that financial conditions are improving, those changes were not yet translating into improvements in the real economy.

"In present circumstances, it makes sense for monetary policy to do the heavy lifting in this recovery by remaining accommodative," Lagarde said ahead of meetings of global finance chiefs in Washington next week.

Lagarde said the exceptionally loose monetary policy of central banks in advanced economies was a concern for emerging economies, which fear a sudden reversal of the large investment flows that have flooded their economies in recent years.